Andrea White visits 2083 in new science-fiction book

Windows on the World is Houston's former first lady's new work

Published 5:30 am, Sunday, July 24, 2011

Andrea White, author and former first lady of Houston has recently published Windows on the World, a sci-fi story for young adults.

Andrea White, author and former first lady of Houston has recently published Windows on the World, a sci-fi story for young adults.

Photo: Patrick T Fallon, Houston Chronicle

Andrea White visits 2083 in new science-fiction book

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It's past lunchtime when I pull into Andrea White's driveway for an interview about her latest book, a sci-fi novel for young adults.

"Are you hungry?" White asks, leading me into her kitchen. "I've got the perfect thing."

She seats me at a counter, pulls a plastic container out of the fridge and nukes me a bowl of buffalo stew — a family favorite of ground turkey, corn, tomatillos, onion, cilantro and a litany of other spices. This batch was made by her housekeeper, Coco.

Lean and athletic-looking, White is as unfussy as her Memorial-area home, which backs onto a mass of trees and is banked by Buffalo Bayou on two sides. Despite the grandeur of the home's size and location, you can set a glass down anywhere and the two dogs have free rein.

White, 58, has a background as a lawyer, three grown children and a busy spouse whose political career has shaped her work and home life, too. Bill White was U.S. deputy secretary of energy from 1993 to 1995, mayor of Houston from 2004 to January 2010, and ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2010.

Through it all, Andrea White has been an education activist. Among her accomplishments: co-founding Houston A+ Challenge, a nonprofit that supports improvements in local public schools.

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But for decades, she has also been stealing time to write fiction.

"When I first started writing, about 18 years ago, I'd write mainly on airplanes," White recalls. "I used to write in carpool lines. If I had 10 minutes I would just be at it, in tiny blocks of time. I no longer go for those."

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"We had a drainage ditch in our backyard," White says. "I pulled up a rock and saw all sorts of insects underneath it. I thought, there is a whole other world here I know nothing about."

To date, White is not even sure how many novels she's written; some have morphed into new books or become parts of other books. But her latest, Windows on the World, is her fourth published work and the first in a trilogy set in 2083 - the same year she set a previous title, Surviving Antarctica: Reality TV 2083.

"I guess that year is far enough away and also comfortably close for making things up," she says.

When asked to critique her own work, White responds with the directness of a veteran writer: "I'm an average prose stylist with a better than average imagination," she says. "I'm really good at plotting, not so good at characterization."

"When I started with Andrea, I was skeptical," admits Roxburgh,who founded Namelos in 2009 and publishes hardcovers, paperbacks and ebooks simultaneously, with all print orders filled on demand. "This book was many hundreds of pages longer than it is now. The question was, could she construct a sustained narrative with a beginning, middle and end? She did it. And now we're working on the other two volumes simultaneously."

Windows on the Worldis the story of 13-year-old Shama, a fiercely self-confident orphan girl who travels back in time to the morning of 9/11. The book asks whether suffering is hard-wired into the world, or if humanity can find a way to eradicate it.

In early drafts, White got valuable feedback from local authors Justin Cronin and Alex Parsons, who helped shape the story in workshops and private writing classes.

"At first Shama was Shamus," White says, "but Alex told me to make him a she, because of Harry Potter. It was time for a female hero. And Justin suggested I set part of the book around 9/11 - to pick an iconic event I wouldn't have to explain. "

At Shama's side throughout is her pet bird, DNA.

"DNA seems to annoy people," White says. "It annoyed Bill and my mother, who said, 'Good book but lose the bird.' " In Justin's class, the bird started out as a ball that could read your mind.

Writing fiction for younger readers comes with its own template, White says.

"The children have to be the center of the action," she explains. "So you have to get rid of their parents, or else make sure they're on a long trip. Children have to be their own agents of change - other people can't rescue them."

Like many authors, White has become her own agent of change in terms of promoting her book. Although Namelos relies on traditional publicity in the form of book reviews, a lot of the responsibility falls on the author.

"Increasingly, authors - if they have that capacity to develop and market the book - let people know their books are coming," Roxburgh says. "Authors are really working with blogs and interviews and Facebook. The world of social networking is accessible to anybody, and Andrea has all those tools at her command."

White gets it. Self-promotion is what puts books into the hands of readers.

"The big publishers get behind big authors," she observes. "From what I can tell, 98 percent of authors have to promote their own books. So it's all pretty much on you. If you're not out there working, it's not going to be read."

White's long-standing commitment to education will soon intersect with Windows on the World. She's giving copies of the book to seven school districts. And she's working with local publishers Arte Público and Bright Sky Press on a new program called VIVA - Virtual Interaction with Visiting Authors - which will let authors visit classrooms via Skype and webcasts.

These days, White feels lucky to have just half her time committed to "other things besides writing."

This particular day happens to be her husband's birthday. She points to a new grill on the back deck - The Big Green Egg grill - that is this year's family gift. Sons Stephen and Will are grilling the birthday dinner.

For many years, White moved to the rhythm of others, relocating to Washington, D.C., when her children were small and serving as Houston's first lady for six years. It got old sometimes, she says, but she's not interested in siphoning more me-time from her busy days.

"Whenever you think that thought," she explains, "wishing the rest of your life would just go away, just float off on an ice shelf for awhile, you realize that's why your life is rich. It would be the worst thing that could happen to you. You're lucky you don't have your wish fulfilled."

Now that she and Bill are empty-nesters, now that Windows on the World is published with two more titles in the trilogy to follow, she is trying to appreciate this stage in her life.

Trying.

"I feel like it's a character flaw," White laughs. "You want to enjoy the moment, but there's always the next thing."